Hi Lynda,
I just joined this Trulia forum yesterday and came across your question. You probably have already received the help you need elsewhere, but just in case not, I wanted to quickly reply. I sensed your frustration with the back and forth, and wanted to just express two things. As a Realtor, I am able to provide good comparable sales from a snapshot in time, and through those sales put in writing an estimated date of death value for you and your family. I have done this many times in my career for friends and for clients. Now, the other respondents are absolutely correct in that this is not the same as a licensed appraisal, but, if your situation does not need a licensed appraisal, then a Realtor opinion should be fine. This decision is up to you. Second, I wanted to let you know that I have lived in the town of Forestville, CA since 1994 and am familair with its nooks and crannies, so if you still need help with your market value opinion, or need a local Realtor opinion on any real estate matter for your trust or family's needs, please do not hesitate to call me.

Sincerely,
Susan Bryer

This question has nothing to do with the court any longer. We need a "rough estimate" of what homes were selling for in January 2007. The trust still "owns" the properties. We just need the approximate values for other purposes. I thought this venue would be helpful......LOL......not! Thanks, anyway!!!!

I concur that you really need a licnesed appraiser for estate purposes. A BPO (broker price opinion) though inexpensive, is just not enough. A licensed appraiser can do this by comparing recently sold listings in the area. I am not an expert on estates, but in order to determine the value at the DOD, they would probably use comperables where title passed much closer to the DOD than current sales.

You can also have a licensed real estate broker complete a Broker Price Opinion in letter form based on the date of death. Here is a website with several Forestville Realtors.

http://crs.com/Find_A_CRS?findem=1&city=&state=CA&am…

I assume that you need this for court or estate tax reasons. You really need to retain a licensed appraiser to prepare this for you.

-Aaron Wheeler, President, Oakville Properties & Oakville Capital